Adjust fan speed

The instruction was written using RivaTuner version 2.24c, although it may be suitable for earlier versions of the program.
Why this instruction? Then, there is still no normal, complete and intelligible description of this unobviously included and at least unobviously working in RivaTuner function in Russian. The “using driver” mode is discrete and does not suit me personally by the need to start monitoring RivaTuner. The less superfluous it is, the better.

To which video cards is the instruction applicable? To any based on the NVIDIA graphics processor, which has the reference control fan speed. The mode of low-level fan control is guaranteed to work (verified by the author personally) for:
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB (G80)
GeForce 8800 GTS 512 MB (G92)
GeForce GTX 260 @ 192
GeForce GTX 260 @ 216
In general, it should approach all video cards whose fans respond to a hard speed task using low-level control.

Procedure

By the beginning of the “hostilities” the following conditions are assumed:
The computer has an NVIDIA based graphics card that supports fan speed control.
The system has a video card driver supported by the RivaTuner utility.
The actual RivaTuner program itself is installed and launched.
Now just move on points:
1. It is necessary to enable automatic fan control. To do this, on the “Registry” tab of the utility (the first time you switch to a tab, a window may pop up with the general meaning “Are you sure you want to climb here?” - answer “Yes” and tick), in the RivaTuner \ Fan branch we find the AutoFanSpeedControl and set its value to 3. The selected tab is shown in the illustration.

2. We leave from RivaTuner. Close the program window by left-clicking the "OK" button. If the option “When closing, minimize to tray” is configured, you need to find the utility icon in the tray and, by right-clicking on it with the RivaTuner menu, select the “Exit” item.

3. Run the utility again.

4. On the Home tab, we find the triangle next to the name of the video card, click on it with the left mouse button and select the Low-Level System Settings icon in the list that appears. We click on it with the left mouse button. See the illustration.

5. In response, a window appears as shown in the illustration.In this box, check the box “Enable low-level cooler control”.

6. A small question-window “Reboot Recommended” will appear. There are many different clever words that boil down to one thing - if you do not have third-party utilities for controlling the fan speed, you can click the "Determine" button. What we are doing.

7. Check whether fan speed control will work. To do this, select the "Constant" mode and set 100% of the revolutions using the slider - to hear the fan noise and left-click the "Apply" button. If the turbine drone is heard (at 100% it is usually heard as “the video card went off”), then you can try to return the mode to default. Usually it is 40-45%. The roar of the turbine should subside.

8. If the turbine responds to the control of this slider, then automatic mode will work. If the video card's fan did not react either to an increase in the turbine speed or to a decrease in them, then it is better to uncheck the “Enable low-level cooler control” box, left-click the “OK” button and not connect with this mode anymore - you can try controlling the fan driver level.

9.If everything is good (the video card's fan is controllable), we begin to configure the low-level mode in automatic mode. To do this, select the “Auto” mode and start “shamanizing” with numbers - all the most interesting is happening here. Some of the parameters are quite understandable and simple, and some are not entirely obvious. There are still so-called. "Extra" options.

So, the description of the parameters and what should be done with them:

"Work cycle, minimum" - this is the minimum fan speed in percent. They will be maintained at any temperature below the minimum. For reference video cards G80, G92 and G200, this is usually 40%. And in general, they should not be touched - at these speeds the turbine is almost inaudible, but it copes with a video card in 2D mode.

The exception is if the room or inside the system unit is very hot and at these speeds the GPU temperature exceeds 55-60 ° C (see below for how to see it). Then you should add 5 or 10% for better cooling of the video card. But you have to put up with a slight noise of the turbine.

“Work cycle, maximum” is the maximum fan speed in percent. They will be maintained at any temperature above the maximum. What can I say ... You can put 100% and be sure that the video card does not overheat even under extreme loads and overclocking.And you can and 85%, if you do not overclock the video card, and enjoy the relative silence.

In order to be sure that the video card does not overheat at 85%, it is necessary to conduct stress tests (toys, 3D Mark, FurMark, etc.) and measure the temperature during their conduct. Personally, I don’t bother and put 100% - all the same, the processor cooler with a loaded processor begins to seriously increase its speed, and the system unit doesn’t remain quiet during the launch of heavy games.

"T. Minimum ”is the very minimum temperature below which the video card will be considered“ cold ”. Usually, it is set to the temperature of the core of the GPU without load. For example, for my GTX 260 it is +45 ° C.

Note. Owners of G80 and G92 should take into account thermal compensation - before setting the parameters “T. minimum "and" T. maximum ”from those values ​​shown by the thermal sensor, you need to subtract a certain number of degrees, usually 8. For example, if the video card shows in rest mode +54 ° C, then in the field“ T. minimum "you need to enter 46. The GT200 series (GTX280, GTX260, GTX275) does not have this thermal compensation, therefore in the" T. minimum ”you can enter the value that is shown by the monitoring of RivaTuner.

"T. range "- you need to choose from a number of numbers: 2; 2.5; 3.33; four; five; 6.67; eight; ten; 13.33; sixteen; 20; 26.67; 32; 40; 53.33; 80You can, of course, enter any other number, but after clicking on the “Apply” button, it will still be brought to the nearest of this series. The range is calculated as the maximum temperature minus the minimum (set in "T. minimum").

Maximum - this is the temperature at which the fan will “thresh” with turns, set by the parameter “Work cycle, maximum”. I do not advise you to set it too high: the higher the average operating temperature of a video card, the less it lives.

Also, do not forget that in addition to the GPU, there is a memory and a power scheme on the video card - and all this heats up and requires cooling. Above 85 ° C, there is no point in asking it (from 90-95 ° C, the regular algorithm of operation, wired in the video card BIOS, starts to increase the fan speed seriously). I usually run the fan in 100% fixed mode and try to warm up the video card with various stress tests. After that, I get the maximum attainable GPU temperature.

For example, for my video card it is +77 ° C. Applying the simplest arithmetic, we obtain the desired parameter “T. range ": 77 - 45 = 32. It fits perfectly in a row, so I entered it. But what if the resulting value is “T.range "in a row does not fit? If reliability and stability of work during overclocking is important - round it down. If silence is important and overclocking is not planned, then round up.

"T. worker "," T. maximum, minimum "," T. limit max. ”are the parameters for automatic control of the parameters described above. In order to exclude the change of all that was so scrupulously configured, it is necessary to set them like this:

10. At the end of all these settings, you need to left-click the “Apply” button, then left-click the “Save” button opposite the “Load settings with Windows” checkbox, set this checkbox and “Restore settings after sleep mode”. And once again click the left button of the mouse "Apply".

11. Then you need to configure RivaTuner to start automatically with the OS and the ability to collapse into the taskbar. To do this, go to the "Settings" tab (see illustration), set the checkboxes "Minimize to tray when closing". Also set the checkbox "Download from Windows".

If you wish (or there are glitches / incompatibility with the OS or antivirus), you can choose one of the autorun methods in the drop-down list to the right of the checkbox: “Through the registry”, “Through the autostart folder”. I have never encountered any problems with the “Through the registry” option selected by default, so I have never changed it.

12. Click the "OK" button with the left mouse button and enjoy the automatic adjustment.
The main advantage of the method described above is the absence of the need to launch and keep in memory RTSS (RivaTuner statistics server), no profiles and problems with their tracking. Standard video card mechanisms are used. If you want it even easier, then you can put another program instead of RivaTuner - MSI Afterburner. It is much easier to control the fan.

How to see the temperature, and then also to track its changes

In order to see the temperature, it is enough to select the icon with a magnifying glass - “Monitoring” on the “Home” tab (see the illustration in paragraph 4 above) from the same “upper” triangle. When you start monitoring for the first time, RivaTuner will most likely offer to select the necessary plugins automatically. The easiest way is to agree.

Most likely, in the list of monitored parameters (and graphs with them) there will be the parameter “Core temperature” or “GPU Core” - that’s why we need to put all these “T. minimum "and" T. range". And in order for monitoring not to stop when RivaTuner is minimized to tray, you need to left-click the large red round button in the lower left corner of the “Enable background monitoring” window. And it must remain pressed.

Background monitoring for low-level fan speed control is not needed, so after all the required temperatures have been measured, it can be turned off by once again clicking the mouse on this round red button.

Take it to yourself, tell your friends!

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